the kkk wasn't going to be anywhere. That's the unconfirmed rumor/lie being spread. These guys were the only ones with permits and they showed up. Regardless if the kkk was coming, how do you protest against what you see ? The guy Shiva is Indian and invented Email. He literally invented email. And is a proponent of free speech. Yet everyone protested him and 20 counter protestors got arrested for throwing rocks and bottles of urine and getting violent. The left sure sounds like they love diverse freedom of speech!

That wasn't clear to anyone in advance. Many of the same Unite the Right people were leveraging the upcoming events as if something would happen. It may have been untrue, but it wasn't a media conspiracy, and it was a legitimate concern.

I'm sure Shiva is a great guy. He did a crap job of alerting officials that his group had no connection to Charlottesville. Instead he got caught up in some pedantic bull about free speech that could have gotten someone hurt.

An NPR poll had BLM's disapproval at 50% and approval at only 33%. But I expect they'd explain that off as racism too.

I'm not wading into the whole debate but this is I believe a Newsbusters story and they completely reversed the percentages from the poll - it's really 50 favorable, 33 unfavorable - then attacked the media for not reporting it. Not having retracted it says a lot about them.

An NPR poll had BLM's disapproval at 50% and approval at only 33%. But I expect they'd explain that off as racism too.

I'm not wading into the whole debate but this is I believe a Newsbusters story and they completely reversed the percentages from the poll - it's really 50 favorable, 33 unfavorable - then attacked the media for not reporting it. Not having retracted it says a lot about them.

I honestly don't see what they're actually protesting. White supremacy? You mean that minority that is so small that they're not even a footnote in today's society? I just don't see any sort of mass racism against non-whites, or white supremacy in today's society.

Hell, if we're talking even the KKK, they have pretty much just been a non-violent groups of rednecks trying to be edgy for a while now. They're nobodies, and not at all indicative of America ideals at all.

All of these protests and stuff started happening after the Trayvon Martin case. People think there's something massive police conspiracy against black people. There isn't. Not only are more whites shot per police encounter, but most blacks shot by police are shot by black cops.

The Antifa people burning a flag? They don't represent me nor do they represent the 20,000 other people who showed up at the Boston rally.

I support all those 20,000 or so citizens who took time out of their day to protest against white supremacy and hate groups.

It's too bad. I wouldn't want to associate with any group that suppresses and shouts down free speech.

The violent protestors burning flags, attacking police and old ladies and throwing urine don't represent all left-wing protestors. Of course, skinheads don't represent conservative protestors, either. There have been hundreds of Tea Party, and even "alt-right" (whatever that term means) protests with less violence than we saw in Boston over the weekend. Yet, the media paints the entire conservative movement like it's burning crosses.

By all accounts, those attempting to speak at the Boston rally were peaceful and rejected hate speech. Yet they were bullied into silence by a mob. I'm not sure that's something to be proud of. It's certainly not any more reflective of our American ideals than hate speech is.

The Antifa people burning a flag? They don't represent me nor do they represent the 20,000 other people who showed up at the Boston rally.

I support all those 20,000 or so citizens who took time out of their day to protest against white supremacy and hate groups.

It's too bad. I wouldn't want to associate with any group that suppresses and shouts down free speech.

The violent protestors burning flags, attacking police and old ladies and throwing urine don't represent all left-wing protestors. Of course, skinheads don't represent conservative protestors, either. There have been hundreds of Tea Party, and even "alt-right" (whatever that term means) protests with less violence than we saw in Boston over the weekend. Yet, the media paints the entire conservative movement like it's burning crosses.

By all accounts, those attempting to speak at the Boston rally were peaceful and rejected hate speech. Yet they were bullied into silence by a mob. I'm not sure that's something to be proud of. It's certainly not any more reflective of our American ideals than hate speech is.

You are assuming all the counter protesters were there protesting the handful of speakers that actually spoke at the rally.

I think this is a really bad assumption.

I think most people were there:(a) protesting about what happened in Charlottesville (ie the white supremacists)(b) protesting the KKK and other white supremacists they assumed would show up in Boston (but, as it turns out, didn't)(c) protesting some of the people who they thought would show up (ie, Kyle Chapman, a white supremacist, was scheduled to speak in Boston).

I list a, b, c in order of why I think 20,000 people were there.

The 20,000 (or whatever the number was) were clearly not there protesting against free speech, per se. To suggest this is just to willfully ignore the reasons people state they are there, and/or to perpetuate a right wing myth that everyone on the left hates free speech.

Our enemies are terrorists, be they jihadists, white supremacists or KKK. Dylan Roof or the Tsarnaev brothers, these are the guys that we need to be calling enemies, along with the racists that create the websites that enable these guys.

Not loser kids from the suburbs with nothing better to do on a weekend afternoon except burn a flag.

The Antifa people burning a flag? They don't represent me nor do they represent the 20,000 other people who showed up at the Boston rally.

I support all those 20,000 or so citizens who took time out of their day to protest against white supremacy and hate groups.

The violent protestors burning flags, attacking police and old ladies and throwing urine don't represent all left-wing protestors. Of course, skinheads don't represent conservative protestors, either. There have been hundreds of Tea Party, and even "alt-right" (whatever that term means) protests with less violence than we saw in Boston over the weekend. Yet, the media paints the entire conservative movement like it's burning crosses.

The counter protesters in Boston weren't even necessarily "left wing"They are people who don't want neo-Nazis and other hate groups coming into our city. That's surely not a left wing or right wing thing. That's just standing up for your community.

Sometimes it takes a little time for the dust to settle, but Trump and other conservatives seem to have effectively taken a group of anti-racists, anti-sexists, and anti-homophobes and gotten people to believe they are on a similar plane as the KKK and white supremacist groups.

I realize the antifa movement has a very flawed methodology in some instances, but the fact that that there is even a debate on who is more evil and that the focus has shifted away from the white supremacists is a major win for Trump.